A story about a spider.
In novels, books, mangas or movies, the title is always the first and most important reference to the story. The next is the cover, followed by the description.
So why am I counting these obvious things here? It's because the author of "Kumo desu ga, nani ka?" likes to use the element "foreshadowing" in a way, leading the reader either jumping to conclusions or not noticing anything at all. (sometimes I'm reading through boards with old posts discussing over the plot just to get amused about how wrong they all were xD)
As a story using plot twists and secrets as a main element, writing a review without spoiler is pretty hard. But to grasp the essence from such a well thought out masterpiece its important to know that there is waaaaaaay more than anyone would expect after reading through the first 100 chapters.
Some facts first. Kumo desu ga, nani ka? Is the most popular Webnovel 2015 with currently about 370 chapters. Yeah it just started 2015. The author is pretty quick in writing and the chapters arent very big in the first place. In december 2015 it got a Lightnovel and manga adaption. Apparently the LN is selling like hotcakes in Japan. That aside, it's one of the few webnovels which actually gets translated into english almost catching up the Japanese raws. There are even translations into german, spanish and french for what I have seen so far.
So, what is this story about, getting liked by so many people already? I'll try to reduce the spoiler to a absolute minimum.
Actually, the story is plit into 3 main arcs.
- Dungeoncrawling & grinding. The prologue.
As a novel about reincarnation into a RPG fantasy world, our protagonist wakes up as a low ranking newborn spider into the most deadly environment on this world, fighting for her life from second 1 onwards. She's neither overpowered, nor does she got any cheatskills besides her human intelligence.
That setting was enough for me personally already to start reading actually xD I never could have imaginated where that would lead to...
As I mentioned grinding, you can see similarities between other reincarnation novels here. As she levels up, she's getting stronger of course, just to spot another even stronger monster behind the next wall. Her only weapons which makes her superior than her environment are her willpower, intelligence and pride.
The main story is completely told from her perspective which results into funny monologues about different things she encounters. What seemed to be a horror survival thriller gets on a lighter level due to the way she's seeing the world, which is needed to present the novel to a mainstream audience. As a gamer in her past life, she's mentioning other manga or rebirthnovels quite frequently, making her even more likable and easier to symphatize with.
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Who wakes up inside a dungeon with only monsters and monsters and monsters would like to leave this dungeon as soon as possible of course. But living among humans as a monster, unable to speak with a human mind only... you can imagine problems incoming. After several encounters with the humans living on this world, the point of view moves to that of these humans sometimes, giving her actions an interesting additional perspective (oh how I loved these chapters xD).
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After a certain point in the story the plot thickens in an unexpected and fascinating way. What feels like the end is actually just the beginning of the story. If you had skipped all the side stories until that point you'd think, "Huh, thats not the end!?" No lol, that was just the prologue!!!
"Sidestories" is a frequently used element used for this webnovel. They are used to tell the story of the classmates who died in that incident as well. Here's the usual cliche hero who got reincarnated into a fantasy world with a cliche personality. As being placed after every 5th or 10th chapter of the main story, they seem to disturb the reading flow alot at first, making you want to skip them. But they are important to understand this world. As they reveal elements our little spider can't experience while fighting in the dungeon, they are used to get a different perspective on that world.
Every single one of them will confuse the reader. Is that happening on the same timeline? Who's that? What the hell is happening? If that's the future, what has happened with Kumo-chan 😕
The author is having fun teasing you alot with them. But everything will be explained at some point. Even the whole skill system. Everything has its reasons. Nothing happens at random, just be patient. At some point you will follow the plot and stop, just to read old side chapters, the description and even the title again and think "Oh my fucking god..." It's just that kind of a story.
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Actually I'd have to review the 2 main arcs plus the connecting arc individually, as they are in a way so different from each other and yet still part of the same story. Most of the comments here on MU are only based on the very 1. part btw. If you don't like all this grinding and talking about skills and how to use them bores you, but you really like a thick well made plot, you'd have to force yourself through that prologue (I enjoyed it!!)
Later in the novel, with the sidestories revealing the past of other characters there is so much going on in the story that its hard to follow sometimes. There is enough plot to fill even standalone series with these short sidestories.
Talking about a reincarnated vampire-girl building up her own reverse harem on a demon school... about a reincarnated goblin boy living peacefully in his small goblin village getting raided by human knights, forcing him into slavery and forcing him to kill and eat his own little sister, eventually enwrapping him into an endless rage...
about one reincarnated former classmate being reborn as a girl (yes, gender bending!!!) now becoming a genuine girl with only memories of being male in his past life, gradually developing feelings for his former best friend...
...just to note some elements. (these arent hardcore spoilers, just hiding them before anyone gets mad. I'm just careful)
I could stop here but I wanna talk about the heroine. As a story being told from her perspective, it's important to know whether she's likeable or not, right?
Kumo, Kumo-chan or Kumoko-chan (Nickname given by herself and readers) is a very fascinating character. Unlike the most MC's in reincarnation novels, she's an unsocial sociopathic shut in who spent most time with gaming in her previous life. At the same time, she's absolute lovely, silly, cute and loyal to her values - just trying to live a simple life avoiding troublesome things whenever possible. Her personality eventually develops into a pragmatic badass doing whatever is needed to survive without losing any of her lovable characteristics. She's the main reason why this novel got so popular in the first place, after all.
You are strong in every way. You taught me the fear of death and you overlooked me in the past because I was weak. I was right to fear you then. Thank you. Now, you will die." - Kumo-chan vs Earth Dragon Alaba.
Nai waaaaa!!!
So whats "Kumo desu ga, nani ka?"? It's a masterpiece in the making.
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